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Tatchell asks for dialogue with Moscow mayor
By: Nigel Robinson

Slavic Pride is on 16 May

Peter Tatchell wants a meeting with Moscow Mayor prior to a planned pride parade

"All we seek is the right to hold a gay parade like they have in other European cities"

Moscow Gay Pride – renamed Slavic Gay Pride – takes place this Saturday 16 May.

The Moscow authorities have banned the planned Pride parade through the city, and have threatened “tough measures” against any marchers.

"I appeal to Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to meet with me and the Slavic Gay Pride organizers to discuss his anxieties about the gay parade,” Tatchell said on his arrival at Moscow airport.

“We are keen to reassure him. Dialogue can create understanding and facilitate the amicable solution we seek… Meeting us would be a generous, conciliatory gesture…

"Many great Russians have been gay or bisexual, including Tchaikovsky, Eisenstein, Mussorgsky, Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Gogol, and Rudolf Nureyev. The Russian people should celebrate their gay history with pride.”

Nikolai Alekseev, the organizer of the pride parade said: "All we seek is the right to hold a gay parade like they have in other European cities. This is not unreasonable. Sadly, the Moscow authorities have so far refused to meet and dialogue with us.”

 At the Moscow Pride parade in 2007, Peter Tatchell was badly beaten and arrested.

"I am undeterred by my violent experiences last time,” he said. “It is important to support brave Russians who are defending the right to protest.

“The right to hold a gay parade is an issue of fundamental civil liberties. We are defending the freedom of expression of all Russians, gay and straight.”


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